The Findlay Toyota Center in beautiful Prescott Valley, Arizona is the host for NXT’s latest pay-per-view event, Halloween Havoc 2025.
There are six matches on the card, five of which feature titles on the line. Wrestlers from NXT, TNA, and AAA are on the card.
Let’s have some fun.
Je’Von Evans & Leon Slater vs Mr. Iguana & La Parka
We’re getting the only match not for a championship out of the way first, apparently. Putting four of the most exciting performers going today in the match is basically guaranteed to get these fans going. Very good choice for a show opener.
Fast paced start as Je’Von and La Parka have a dance-off and a battle of impressive aerial offense. When both men tag out, Leon Slater and Mr. Iguana keep the pace off the charts. We’re having a fun lucha libre style match so far.
Arizona definitely has a sizable Mexican presence in its population. That might explain why Je’Von and Leon just got a bit of a heel reaction as they danced over a fallen Mr. Iguana just now. It’s so weird to hear Je’Von Evans get booed for any reason.
Good volume to a chant for AAA, furthering my point about the Mexican population in Arizona.
Evans and Slater have a great amount of in-ring chemistry, made even more impressive by the fact that they’re both only 21 years old, and this is only their second match teaming together.
There hasn’t been a single “down” moment in this match yet. From the opening bell, these four have been out to set the tone and to try and steal the show.
Really entertaining opening match. Evans and Slater pick up the win. Nice mix of ultra athletic offense and comedy spots. There were some hiccups, though, that prevented the match from reaching “great” status. They were usually timing-based, and involved a couple of awkward moments and missed spots. Some will call it inexperience on the part of Evans and Slater, while others will call it communication issues with whatever language barriers there are. Either way, they were enough to notice, but not enough to derail the match. I’m still going with 3.75 Stars.
“All Ego” Ethan Page vs El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. – Day Of The Dead Match for the NXT North American Title
El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. does not have his AAA Latin American Title on the line here. That hardly seems fair.
The lights in the ring are a shade of purple, while the lights at ringside are an orangey-red color. It usually doesn’t lead to the betterment of matches when the ring lights get messed with, so we’ll see how it goes here.
Something that also doesn’t usually lead to the betterment of matches is PG-rated “hardcore” stipulations. Especially when they take place in matches and feuds that don’t necessarily deserve them. You know… like this one.
Hearing Booker T talk about the damage done to the challenger’s “medulla oblongalalala” was a special moment that I will cherish for the rest of my days.
The match has been hard-hitting so far, but I don’t really care too much about things like trash can lid shots.
All Ego has been busted open, and he’s bleeding heavily from the forehead.
Page tears at his opponent’s mask, and he basically “scalps” him, pulling the top of the mask off, exposing El Hijo de Dr. Wager Jr.’s face from the bridge of the nose and up. The crowd chants “holy shit” and then “you fucked up” at Page, as the AAA Latin American Champion boils over in rage.
Coast To Coast from the challenger, dropkicking a trash can into the dome of the champion!
The crowd has gotten more and more into the match as it goes on. Everything is building nicely, even with the trash can and trash can lid shots.
The champion survives and retains his title. I still don’t think the feud had much legs to it, and it didn’t deserve a spot like this, but both men worked hard to present an entertaining match. Back-to-back bouts on the show that were really good, but just missed the threshold of becoming “great.” I’ll give this one 3.75 Stars, too.
Zaria vs Blake Monroe – NXT Women’s North American Title Match
Sol Ruca is out with an injury, so her tag partner, Zaria, is defending her title for her here. What could possibly go wrong?
After two hot reactions, the crowd isn’t quite as involved here. There’s still plenty of time for Zaria and Blake to win them over, at least.
While the women are fighting, the crowd begins chanting for Booker T, who doesn’t verbally respond to the chants. He isn’t shown on-camera, so he could’ve acknowledged them quietly, I suppose.
Zaria is sent into the ring steps, and she begins selling a shoulder injury. At ringside, Sol Ruca shoves Zaria, shoulder-first, into the ring post. It looks like a heel turn for a split second, but then Zaria realizes that her shoulder is back in its socket. Sol smiles, and Zaria gets back in the ring as the proverbial house of fire. That was clever.
Two Glamour Shot DDTs, one at ringside and another in the center of the ring, are enough for Blake Monroe to get the pin and the win. She is the brand new Women’s North American Champion. Zaria was not able to successfully defend her bestie’s title, and Sol looks heartbroken at ringside.
The match was decent enough, but it was really affected by Sol Ruca’s injury. There wasn’t enough juice behind the story being told. Blake Monroe as the new champion was the right call, though, and things should pick up now that she has the title. 3.25 Stars
Jacy Jayne vs Tatum Paxley – NXT Women’s Title Match
Tatum might not be the strongest challenger we’ve ever seen, but Jacy isn’t the strongest champion we’ve ever seen. Is it time for a title change? The crowd continues to be behind Tatum, even though she is running with Shawn Spears and his heel Culling stable.
I’m going to need Tatum to tighten up her offense a bit. She has thrown a couple strikes in the early moments of this match that didn’t even come close to making any real contact. They looked really bad.
Things have broken down at ringside. Shawn Spears breaks up a Jacy Jayne pin attempt by grabbing Tatum’s leg and putting it on the bottom rope. Lainey Reid performs a big splash on Spears and Niko Vance, and then the women not involved in the match begin brawling. Eventually, the Referee throws everyone out of the ringside area, leaving this to a true one-on-one match.
Tatum lands a 450 from the top, but it only gets 2.999, and that was a very believable near fall. The crowd fully believed it was over there.
“Fight forever” chant from the crowd, who don’t seem to care much about their own personal wellbeing or mental health.
Everyone that was thrown out returns to the ring, and it’s enough of a distraction for Izzi Dame to grab the NXT Women’s Title and enter the ring. She sneaks up behind Tatum and looks like she’s about to hit her with the belt. Tatum ducks out of the way at the last minute, but Izzi is taken out by Jacy. In the aftermath, Tatum gets Jacy and hits her with Cemetery Drive. One, two, three, and we have a brand new NXT Women’s Champion. The crowd erupts. Spears and Vance celebrate with Tatum, while Izzi looks upset.
There were definitely some rough patches in this one, but the match ended up being a decent one overall, complete with the feel good ending that the crowd ate up. 3.25 Stars
The Hardy Boyz vs DarkState – Broken Rules Match for the NXT Tag Team Titles
It’s not quite the same reaction that they would’ve gotten if they were in their “normal” personas, but “Broken/Woken” Matt Hardy and Brother Nero are here, and they remain over with live crowds. It is damn near 2026, and they’re still insanely popular.
Dion Lennox and Osiris Griffin are the DarkState members competing in this one, but anything goes in the match, so Saquon Shugars and Cutler James are already involved. The Hardys are outnumbered, but they’re using steel chairs to try and even the odds a bit.
There goes the numbers advantage for DarkState. Matt and Jeff just took Saquon and Cutler out, putting them both through a table at ringside… Jeff with a Swanton from the top rope, and Matt with a leg drop from halfway up a ladder.
Oh, joy… the trash cans are back.
Osiris and Dion perform a 3D to Matt. THE TRIBUTES HAVE BEGUN. CENA! CENA! CENA!
A “this is awesome” chant breaks out. The match hasn’t been terrible, but awesome? Come on now. Have some respect for yourselves, Prescott Valley.
Jeff goes to land a Swanton from the top of a giant ladder as Osiris is prone atop a table at ringside, but Osiris gets out of the way, and Jeff crashes and burns. There’s no way that poor bastard’s body can keep taking these kinds of bumps. He’s damn near 50 years old and has been putting his body through it for decades.
Dion Lennox climbs to the top of the giant ladder at ringside, and he uses it as a boost to jump into the ring and put Jeff through a table with a Doomsday Device. It’s enough to get the pin and the win, and DarkState has won the NXT Tag Team Titles once again. They become the eighth team to win these titles on more than one occasion.
While anything Matt and Jeff Hardy do is going to be crowd-pleasing, even at this advanced stage of their careers, I wouldn’t exactly say the match was anything phenomenal. It did its job, though, and that’s what matters. 3.5 Stars
Ricky Saints vs Trick Williams – NXT Title Match
Main event time.
If Trick wins the title here, he joins Samoa Joe as the only three-time NXT Champions in history. A loss by Trick will only fuel the rumors that he’s bound for Raw or Smackdown shortly.
Hearing Vic Joseph and Booker T constantly arguing and yelling over each other on commentary is incredibly annoying. It’s always annoying when wrestling commentators do that, and this is no different. Cut it out.
Saints has a bit of a mouse forming over his right eye, and it has begun to bleed a bit. Looks like it happened when he was sent face-first into the ring post.
Dueling chants of “let’s go, Ricky” and “Ricky sucks” from the crowd. Very interesting.
We’re getting into the deep water portion of the match, but the champion is struggling to build any momentum. Every time he gets something going, it is stopped by Trick almost immediately.
Of course… I type that, and then Ricky Saints finally builds up enough momentum, and he gets the pin and the win to retain his title.
Keeping with the theme of the night… the match was good, but wasn’t enough to be more than that. 3.5 Stars. It feels like forever since I’ve reviewed a pay-per-view from any company that didn’t feature a single match topping the four-star mark. There wasn’t anything bad, but still… that’s an unfortunate showing overall. NXT pay-per-views just aren’t the joy to cover that they used to be.
As I said, there wasn’t anything bad, but nothing that you’re going to remember a week from now, let alone months from now. If you didn’t already watch the show, you’re going to be just fine if you skip it. Unless you’re an absolute NXT mega fan, or unless you’re a big-time fan of people like Tatum Paxley and DarkState, there’s no real reason for you to go out of your way to check Halloween Havoc out. That’s a shame.
I’ll be back later tonight with my review of the AAA Héroes Inmortales event, capping another busy day.
